Warp stop motion for looms



Jan. 8, 1924. 1,480,448 v P. KEEGAN WARP STOP MOTION FOR LO0M S Filed July 17. 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1;

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Jan. 8, 1924.

. P. KEEGAN WARP STOP MOTION FOR LOOMS Filed July 1'7 1922 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 lnvenTor PuTricK Keegcm mwlm Aflys.

Patented Jan. 8, 192 4.

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PATRICK KEEGAN', 0F LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS, KSSIGNOIB TO DIAPER CORPORA- T1011, 01 HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

WARP STOP MOTION FOR LOOMS.

Application filed July 11, 1922. Serial Io. 575,523.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I PATRICK KEEGAN, a citizen of the United states, and resident of Lowell, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts have invented an Improvement in Warp stop Motions for Looms, of which the following description, in connectionwith the accompanying drawing, is a specification, like characters on the drawing representing like parts.

This-invention relates to warp stop motions for looms and more particularly to means for indicating the location of a dropped detector and the broken or abnormally loose warp thread, which has caused the loom to stop, so that the operator may readily locate and piece or place in proper condition the warp thread and start the loom.

It is common to provide looms with warp stop motions comprising a series of detectors supported by the warps and so arranged that, when one of the warps breaks or slackens unduly, the detector supported by it drops and effects the actuation of mechanism which sto s the loom.

It is a, ifiicult matter for the operator to locate such a dropped detector and broken or abnormally loose warp because of the very large number of warps in the sheet and the inconspicuous character of the detectors. Various means have, therefore, been devised in an effort to enable the operator readily to locate the dropped detector and thus to minimize the loss of time required in piecing the broken warp or taking up the slack and starting the loom.

The present invention employs a familiar type of thin, fiat detectors, normally supported in parallelism and close together in one or more banks, and provides means manually operated after the loomis stopped for twisting a dropped detector out of parallelism with the other detectors. Thus the detectors and the warps are separated by the twisted detector and the location of the latter is made obvious.

The invention in another feature utilizes a means for positively grasping the dropped detector by its edges to effect the stopping of the loom, and preferably for this purpose a pair of parallel bars wh1ch have imparted to them by a moving part of the loom a relative lateral reciprocation whereby the dropped detector is grasped by its edges between them. The invention in a preferred form provides in connection therewith a means manually operated after the loom is stopped for givin a relative longitudinal movement to the ars thereby to twist the dropped detector grasped there between and thus render the location of the dropped detector obvious.

These and other objects and features of the lnventlon will appear more fully from the accompanying description and will be particularly pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a view, partly in side elevation, and partly in vertlcal section,of a sufficient portion of a loom to illustrate a preferred embodlment of the invention;

Flg. 2 is a front elevation of that ortion of the stop motion mechanism direct y concerned with the present invention;

3 is a side elevation, partly in vertical sect1on of the construction shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a to view enlarged of a small section of one o the banks of the detectors and the warps corresponding thereto;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 4 showing a dropped detector in twisted position with portions of the grasping bars by which the tw stin action is secured in a preferred form 0 the invention.

A simple and preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings as applied to the well known Northrop type of loom and as utilizing a well known type of stop motion mechanism, but it will be understood that the broad principles of the invention may e embodied in other types of looms and in other types of stop motion mechanisms.

The loom illustrated comprises the usual side frames 1 and 2, breast beam 3, lay 4, main shaft 5, cam shaft 6, harness frames 7, and other usual parts.

The detecting portion of the stop motion mechanism is mounted in a suitable position in the rear of the harness frames at the topof the'loom. For that purpose supporting brackets 8 extend upwardly from the loom sides. These brackets are connected by the longitudinal parallel flat-bars 9 extendin transversely of the loom directly beneath the warp sheet. The warps as they pass from the warp beam, not shown, to the shed forming mechanism rest upon and are supported by the upper edges of these bars at opposite sides of the detectors. If, as herein illustrated, there is more than one bank of detectors, intermediate supporting rods 10 are provided to support the warps be tween the banks of detectors.

The detectors are in the form of thin, flat metal pieces 11. Each detector is provided with a small aperture 12 through which its warp passes so that normally each detector is supported by the warp with the apertures 12 in the same plane as the top surfaces of the bars 9 and the rod 10. The detectors are guided so as to move vertically by means of long vertical slots 13 formed therein and fitting overflat, vertically disposed detector guide bars 14 extending transversely of the loom between the supports 8.

The detectors are shown as arranged in two banks extending transversely of the loom, and this is a preferred and familiar arrangement, but it may be varied as desired.

A fiat plate or bar 15 provided with a serrated rearward edge 16 extends transversely of the loonrbeneath the forward edges of the forward bank of detectors, and for that purpose is conveniently secured to the forward supporting bar 9. A similar bar 17 provided with a serrated edge 18 is mounted in a corresponding location at the bottom of the rear supporting bar 9. A feeler bar or plate 19 having serrated edges 20 and 21 extends parallel with the bars 15 and 17 and is so mounted as to rock toward and from these bars. For that purpose the feeler bar 19 is conveniently supported by arms 22 secured to and extending upwardly from a rock shaft 23. This rock shaft is supported in bearings 24 carried by brackets 25 adjustably secured to the supporting bars 9 and is given a rocking or oscillating movement from a continuously moving part of the loom such as the cam shaft 6. As the mechanism for giving this rocking or oscillating movement is well known and familiar. it needs no further description.

If the rocking or oscillating movement of the shaft 23 is restrained, this mechanism acts to move the link 26 endwise, thus rocking the shipper actuating lever 27 pivotally mounted at 28 on the loom frame and provided with a cam slot 29 engaging the shipper lever 30. When this endwise movement of the link 26 takes place, the shipper lever 30 is thrown out of engagement with its usual retaining slot causing the stoppage of the loom, in a manner well known to those skilled in the art.

The general type of mechanism illustrated between the oscillating feeler bar 19 and the shipper lever 30 is similar to that disclosed in Letters Patent No. 67 3,824 granted to Stimpson May 7, 1921.

It will be seen that the bars 15 and 19 are parallel and extend longitudinally of and beneath the opposite edges of the front bank or series of detectors and that the mechanism provided acts to give relative lateral reciprocation to said bars by reason of the oscillation of the movable bar 19 with respect to the fixed bar 15. If new a warp breaks and a detector in the front bank drops, these longitudinally extending bars' the shaft 23 which in this form of mecha-.

nism is utilized to effect the stopping of the loom.

The present invention provides means for shifting the grasping means to twist a dropped detector out of parallelism with the other detectors. This twisting movement is effected by moving the rocking or oscillating bar 19 longitudinally with respect to the opposing fixed bar, or in other words, by giving a relative longitudinal movement tosaid bars.

A referred form of mechanism for thus twisting the dropped detector after the loom is stopped, is illustrated in detail in Figs. 2 and 3. Supporting brackets 31 and. 32 are secured to and depend from the warp supporting bars 9 to provide at their lower ends below the shaft 23 bearings for the ends of a rock shaft 33. A bifurcated arm 34 is secured by means of set screws 35 to the shaft 33 and projects upwardly with the bifurcated ends in engagement with theend surface of a collar 36 forming a portion of the rod 38 is provided with a suitable handle 40. A helical spring 41 is mounted on the shaft 23 between the collar 36 and the hearing 24;. A stop log 42 on the bracket arm 32 serves to limit the upward movement of the arm 37.

The parts of the mechanism are normally in the position illustrated in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. The spring 41 holds the shaft 23 and consequently the serrated edge bar 19 in fixed relation longitudinall of the fixed serrated edge bars 15 and 1 because this spring presses the collar 36 against arm 34 which is held rigid by reason of the engagement of the arm 37 with the stop lug 42. When the toward and from the fixed bars and 17 or,

in other Words, a relative lateral reciprocation is constantly taking lace between the bar 19 and the bar 15 an between the bar 19 and the bar 17. If now a warp breaks the detector 11 supported thereby I drops, and if it' is in the front bank its lower end comes between the serrated edges of the bar 19-and the bar 15 while if it is in the rear bank its lower end comes between the serrated edges of the bar 19 and the bar 17. Immediately this takes place the serrated edge bars grasp the dropped detector by itsedges, the rocking movementor later reciprocation of the bar 19 is restrained and the loom is stopped through the operation of the mechanism already described.

In order now to locate the position of the dropped detector, the operator presses down on the handle 40 thus swinging the arm 37 downwardly away from the sto 42, rocking the shaft 33 and the bifurcate arm 34 and thus moving the shaft 23 longitudinally against the tension of the spring 41, and thus giving a relative lon 'tudinal movement between the serrate which the dropped detector is graspe This causes the dropped detector to {be twisted out of parallelism with the other detectors and into a position substantially as shown in Fig. 5. The twisting of the dropped detector separates the bank or series of parallel detectors to a noticeable degree so that the location of a dropped detector is at once apparent, and the warp associated therewith may be pieced or its slack taken up.

The detecting mechanism, it will be observed, is manually operated so that the dropped detector may be held in twisted position for as lon as necessary to locate its position and ma e the necessary repairs. TlllS detecting mechanism is not operated until after the loom is stoppedso that no undue strain is placed upon the dro ped detector, and its full strength is avai able edge bars b in the stopping of the loom because when it is grasped by the serrated edge bars to effect the sto ping of the loom, the grasping action is app ied 1n the plane of the detector.

It will be apparent that, among other things, the position of the handle 40 and the location and construction of the particular mechanism for effecting longitudinal movement of the shaft 23 and for maintaining it normally in position may be varied widely from the illustrated construction.

The invention provides a very simple and eflicient mechanism readily adaptable to existing forms of sto motion mechanism for effecting the desire results.

Havingthus'explained the nature of the invention and described a referred embodiment thereof, although without attempting to set forth all of the forms in which it may be embodied and used, what is claimed is A warp stop motion for looms comprising a series of flat warp detectors normally supported in parallelism by the warps, a pair of parallel bars extending longitudinally of the edges of the series of detectors, means operated by a moving part of the loom to give a relative lateral reciprocation to said are and cause them to asp a dro ed detector by its ed s anf thereb e ect the stopping of the com, a vertica y movable handle, rod mounted for vertical movement on a fixed art of the loom and extending upwardly a ove the warp sheet into a convenient position to be reached by the operator, and a lever connection between said handle rod and. said bars actin upon movement of the handle rod to e ect a relative longitudinal movement of the said bars whereby upon the movement of the handle rod by the operator after the loom is stopped the dropped detector will be twisted oubof parallelism with the other detectors thereby to indicate the position of the dropped detector.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

PATRICK KEEGAN. 

